Dunya & Desie (The Series)

Dunya & Desie is a Dutch tvseries, directed by Dana Nechustan and written by Robert Alberdingk Thijm. We see the life and puberty-issues of two young girls in Amsterdam-North. Dunya (Maryam Hassouni) comes from a Moroccan family and lives in a world where her home-rulesquite often don’t match the ‘Dutch’ world of her best friend, Desie (Eva van de Wijdeven). She’s from a single-parent-family and lives together with her mother in a typical girls-household. She may be a bit less intelligent than Dunya, but she has a heart of gold. They both struggle with different questions about life, but find it easy to talk to eachother about these issues.

The first two of three Dunya & Desie seasons, evolve around the two teenagers and their view on life. In the third season, Duyna and Desie both go to different highschools, and the series focuses more on becoming adults.

The series won various awards in the Netherlands and abroad, including the Golden Statue for Best Dramaseries, the Prix Jeunesse and the Premio Ondas (Beste European youthseries). In 2005, Dunya & Desie was nominated for the Emmy Award, as it was the year before.